Preparing a Keyboard Part

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Preparing a Keyboard Part

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If you are preparing a part for the piano or keyboard, here are several tips that you should find useful.

prcarrow If you have imported a MIDI file, and the left-hand and right-hand notes for the keyboard part are combined in one difficult-to-read staff:

B816Use the Split Hands command in the Staff menu to sort out the notes into right- and left-hand staves.
B816If Musician does not do a perfect job of distributing the notes between the right- and left-hand staves, then select notes and type SHIFT+UpArrowKey or SHIFT+DownArrowKey to move the notes between the staves.

prcarrow To instruct Musician to automatically recommend to you adjustments to keyboard tracks while importing a MIDI file:

B816Use the Transcription Options command in the Setup menu.  Set check marks for these automatic recommendations:

Keyboard staff probably should be split into RH and LH staves.

The order of a pair of keyboard staves probably should be switched from LH/RH to RH/LH.

The keyboard RH/LH staves should be ordered before other instrument staves.

prcarrow If the notes in a right-hand or left-hand staff are too far above or below the staff (there are too many ledger lines):

B816If the notes are too high in the bass clef, then insert a treble clef in front of the notes.
B816If the notes are too low in the treble clef, then insert a bass clef in front of the notes.
B816If the notes are too high in the treble clef, then insert an 8va octave notation across the span of high notes.
B816If the notes are too low in the bass clef, then insert an 8va basso octave notation across the span of low notes.

prcarrow To prepare a simple piano part with a single line of notes with "easy note" pitch letters displayed in the noteheads in a large font size, such as for a beginner pianist :

B816Use the Prepare Easy Notes command in the Part menu.

prcarrow If there are too many ties in the part because some notes overlap with different attacks or durations:

B816Re-transcribe the right- and/or left-hand piano staff, with the Split (Upper and Lower) Voice option turned on. This will result in some notes with upward stems, and some with downward stems, so that the independent note attacks and durations are more clearly distinguished without the use of ties.
B816Re-transcribe the right- and/or left-hand piano staff, with the Remove Overlaps of Notes option turned on.

prcarrow To prepare a piano reduction of an instrument ensemble score (such as a string quartet or even orchestral score):

B816Use the Prepare Piano Reduction command in the Part menu.
B816If Musician does not do a perfect job of distributing the notes between the right- and left-hand staves for the reduced score, then select notes and type SHIFT+UpArrowKey or SHIFT+DownArrowKey to move the notes between the staves.

prcarrow To prepare a "third hand" staff, for passages in which the right or left hand is frequently jumping two octaves or more:

B816Use the Add Staff command to add the third hand adjacent to the right- or left-hand piano staff.
B816Move extreme notes from the right- or left-hand staff to the new third hand staff, by selecting them and typing SHIFT+UpArrowKey or SHIFT+DownArrowKey. See Shifting Notes Between Staves.
B816Apply the Hide Resting Staves command to this new third hand staff, so that it is displayed in the score only when there are notes in it.